Trailer Tracker: Liam Neeson in The Grey and Battleship

Liam Neeson has been carving out a second career in recent years as the wronged man — and, incidentally, the man you don’t want to mess with. His enemies have been legion. 2008’s Taken pitted him against human traffickers who kidnapped his daughter and got this trend rolling.

Next came Clash of the Titans, where Neeson played Zeus, put upon by all of humanity, or at least the ancient Greek part of it. He had to battle shadowy military types in 2010’s The A-Team, and their close cousins, shadowy international spy types, in last year’s Unknown.

What’s he up against next? Wolves! In The Grey, opening Jan. 27, and directed by The A-Team’s Joe Carnahan, Neeson plays a survivor of an Arctic plane crash. The trailer shows a woman he would very much love to get home to, but first things first: wolves!

Neeson apparently has to battle wild, savage dogs with nothing but his wits, a cable-knit sweater, a warm woolen cap (surely that can’t be “the grey” the title is referring to?) and, most impressively, broken miniature alcohol bottles duct-taped to his fingers. Neeson is already the frontrunner for the 2012 MacGyver Award

If he survives that — and come on, he’s a Jedi knight! — his next challenge will be on May 18, when he stars as Admiral Shane in the based-on-a-board-game movie Battleship. The bad guys this time appear to be mighty alien invaders from whatever sector of the galaxy spawned the Transformers. But with the power of the U.S. Navy at his command, not to mention his seafaring experience from K-19, my money’s on Neeson to sink (ital) their (unital) battleship.

Also on Neeson’s radar is a trio of sequels, with roles for him in The Dark Knight Rises, the cleverly named Clash of the Titans 2, and the cleverly not-yet-named Untitled Taken Sequel. (Retaken? Twice Taken?) He’d better keep those miniature bottles ­ and fighting skills ­ sharp.